Specialist Frank Masiello wears a "Dow 15,000" hat as at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange May 3, 2013. The Dow pole vaulted over the mark, then fell back. / Richard Drew AP

by Adam Shell and Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

by Adam Shell and Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

NEW YORK -- It was a day of milestones on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrial average pole vaulting 15,000 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index making a strong breakout above the 1,600 level, both for the first time.

At the close Friday, preliminary figures showed the Dow up 142.38 points or 0.96% at 14,973.96, the S&P 500 was 16.83 points or 1.05% higher at 1,614.42, and the tech-laden Nasdaq composite index was up 38.01 points or 1.14% at 3,378.63. The index was trading at its highest levels in more than 12 years.

After the early employment report, traders were breathing a little easier "that the sky is not yet falling on the U.S. economic expansion," says Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West.

The bullish reaction to the strong jobs number was evident in a sharp rise in the Dow, which was up as much as 175 points in early trading. In afternoon trading, the Dow was back below 15,000.

"It's been a long time coming," says Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, noting that it took "13 years, one month and 11 days" for the S&P 500 to climb the 100 points from 1,500 to 1,600. The 1,000 points have come a lot faster for the Dow. It first closed above the 14,000 level in July of 2007.

"The payroll number was a surprise to the upside," says Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities USA.

Wall Street, which had been expecting only 148,000 jobs to be created last month, got 165,000 instead, and must now adjust their investment outlook. They had been betting that the economy and jobs market were weakening after some less-than-stellar economic data in recent weeks.

"The better-than-expected 165,000 increase in non-farm payrolls in April, combined with the 114,000 upward revision to the gains in the preceding two months, will go a long way toward soothing fears of another spring slowdown," says Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

If there's one negative to today's strong jobs report, it is that it could prompt the Federal Reserve to dial down its easy-money policy earlier than expected, Ashworth said. "With the unemployment rate edging down to a four-and-a-bit-year low of 7.5%, the Fed may yet begin to slow the pace of its asset purchases sometime in the second half of the year."

Even so, "we remain fully invested in U.S. stocks," said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors, who favors growth stocks over defensive shares. "We think the U.S. stock market is headed higher."

On Thursday, the European Central Bank's interest-rate cut boosted stock prices. The central bank, which sets interest rates for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, cut the rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a record low 0.5%.

Benchmark oil for June delivery rose $1.69 to $95.68 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.96, or 3.3%, to finish at $93.99 a barrel on the Nymex on Thursday, the biggest one-day gain for crude since November.